Battlestar Galactica: The Rise of Zeon
by 117Jorn
Summary: In U.C 100, the Side 3 colonies of the New Zeon Republic left the Earth Sphere, lead by the Deikun heir Char Aznable, following his father's dream, and seeking out to find a new home for Zeon away from Earth's gravity. A thousand yeas later, the 12 Colonies of Kobol are destroyed, and the Galactica Fleet soon discovers a world colonized by humans, claiming to be from Earth...


**Disclaimer: We don't own Gundam or Battlestar Galactica**

* * *

 **U.C 0100**

 **Side 3 Colonies**

* * *

Char Aznable had been known by many names in his life. Casval Rem Deikun, Edward Mass, Quattro Bajeena, and of course most notably the Red Comet. Throughout his life, Char had been committed to the Spacenoid movements, serving the Principality of Zeon, A.E.U.G, and Neo Zeon… sometimes he wondered how things could have been different, if he hadn't of made the choices he did from the One Year War. If he did… perhaps he wouldn't have become the new President of the New Zeon Republic.

He supposed the biggest change was during the Battle in North America, where he nearly let Garma Zabi die at the hands of the _White Base,_ and its mobile weapons. However, he did not anticipate that Garma himself would head out in his own Mobile Suit. When his Gaw was destroyed, Garma survived - and actually managed to deal some damage to the Federation's prototypes - even managing to capture the larger one, the Guntank, for a brief time. Considering Garma was the first Zeon commander to have any form of success against the V-Project, even if temporary, it escalated his reputation quite a bit among the people.

However, the battles had also caused Garma to mature, oddly enough. He took his missions far more seriously than before, and managed to gain the loyalty of many within Zeon… something that Gihren did _not_ approve of, as Garma was beginning to steal his followers. This lead to a division between Gihren and Garma, which would drastically change the fate of Zeon.

In the middle of the war, Garma and Dozel left the Principality of Zeon, forming New Zeon to stand against Gihren's regime. This lead to what would soon become known as the Zeon Civil War. The Federation, of course, used this to their advantage as they launched Operation: Star One, however it had… much more mixed results. While they were able to defeat the Principality and kill most of the Zabi family, the majority of New Zeon forces escaped the earth sphere, and re-planted their flag at Mars, while Principality forces claimed the asteroid base Axis as their new home. Though Admiral Dozel and General Garma were killed at the end of the war, both had children to continue their legacy - Mineva Lao Zabi, and Desmond Zabi.

Tensions between these two factions of Zeon remained tense. However with the defeat of Neo Zeon at the first Neo Zeon war, New Zeon accepted the Zeon Remnants into their territory. However, in a surprising turn of events, Desmond Zabi - only son of Garma Zabi, did not take command of Zeon when he could have… instead, he gave the position to Char, now known as the last heir to the Deikun Dynasty. Believing that he was the most fit to secure the dream of Zeon.

This act greatly surprised Char, but he accepted the position as he began to rally Zeon back under a single flag. However, all of this was nearly undone due to a Cyber Newtype clone of his - named Full Frontal. He lead a splinter faction of Neo Zeon known as 'The Sleeves', and continued to wage another war against New Zeon and the Federation, searching for something called 'Laplace's Box'.

In the end however, Full Frontal was defeated… but the contents of Laplace's box were revealed for all of the world to see. The true U.C Charter was unveiled, revealing that the U.N had created Clause 9 to support Spacenoid Independence, and directly suggests the existence of Newtypes, confirming his father's theory at long last. And also revealing the true depths of corruption the Federation had befallen.

This had sparked riots, and the near total collapse of the Earth Federation. Char used this chaos to his advantage, as he ran for presidency for the Republic of Zeon, nearly unopposed as he won in a landslide election, and began to rally those who truly believed in Zeon Deikun's ideals, while eliminating those who believed in Gihren Zabi's philosophy. Reforming the government into the New Zeon Republic.

Char and New Zeon soon found themselves at a critical moment of history, where they had all the power to eliminate the Federation once and for all, and ensure Spacenoid independence… however, Char did not wish to make the same mistakes the Zabi family did. Instead, he decided to _help_ the Federation get back onto its feet, so that it may begin anew following the true U.C Charter.

Afterwards however… Char came to a single conclusion; Zeon needed to leave the Earth Sphere, and the solar system all together. There were too many who still resented Zeon, who believed they would never change… for the betterment of the Spacenoid movement, Char began the Exodus Project: the colonies of Side 3 were modified to become mobile, and the colonies would leave the earth sphere - and the solar system itself - to find a new home somewhere out in the stars.

It took them years to prepare, but now it was finally time to leave. The people of Zeon, and many more across the Earth Sphere had joined Char and New Zeon as they abandoned Grenada and their lunar bases, and began to set out into the wide abyss of space. The colonies had already begun to leave their possition behind the moon, as Char sat in Munzo City itself, watching the last few recordings of Earth as they departed.

Char knew that it was very unlikely that they would ever return to earth - at least not in his lifetime. However, he was glad that - at the very least - he was able to leave on much better terms than what it could have been. He hoped that, if Zeon and the Earth do meet once more… it shall be on equal terms once more.

"What do you think we'll find out there?" Nanai Miguel asked, standing next to Char, her hands holding her slightly swollen stomach.

Char smiled slightly, putting a hand on her shoulder "Who knows?" He asked, "All we can do is be prepared for anything… there's a whole universe out there after all."

Nanai smiled back, nodding "Yeah… a universe of infinite possibilities..." she said.

* * *

 **Many years Later**

 **Battlestar Pegasus - beginning of the Caprica rescue mission**

* * *

20 Mk IVB Raptor attack/EWACS craft left the last (known) battlestar of the Mercury-Class, en route for their trip back to Caprica. Margaret Edmondson, callsign Racetrack, called her name before spinning up the Raptor's FTL drive. "This is crazy." She said. "But what Starbuck wants, Starbuck gets, right?"

Skulls had to agree with that, but only chuckled instead. " _SAR team, Starbuck: Standby to jump on my mark._ " Said the aformentioned pilot leading the return home. " _Five, four, three..._ "

"Here we go."

"Jump."

The Raptors began jumping, and Racetrack's was the last to go, only they ended up WAY off course. "This doesn't look right." Skulls muttered. Racetrack looked at Skulls, who was doing his job as her ECO. "No other contacts on DRADIS."

Racetrack did not want to hear that, so she pretended she didn't. "What?" She asked.

Skulls, however, laid it on bluntly. "Oh, man." He muttered, "We're at the wrong jump coordinates." Skulls began checking the navigational equipment while the Marines all shook their heads. Pilots were either insane or just plain stupid.

"I think there was some kind of glitch in the navcon firmware." He said. "Hey bottom line, we're to hell and gone from where we're supposed to be, skipper."

"Frak me." Racetrack cursed, "Okay, um, any chance that we can still catch up with them?"

"No, not a chance." Skulls said, "Mission rules say that we head back to the nest."

"Frak me; that was the first...jump..." Racetrack began to say, but trailed off as the Raptor rotated into line of sight with a planet...an inhabited planet, judging by the colonies and ships. "What… the… Frak..."

"Racetrack… are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Skulls muttered as he looked out the window.

"If by a planet with… big… structure… things, floating around it… yes… yes I am." Racetrack said.

"Are they Cylons?" One of the Marines asked.

"No… it doesn't' look like something the Cylons would make..." Skulls said, before the DRADIS beeped. "Oh Frak, we've got company! One ship heading our way!"

A large ship, roughly 600 meters from their guess, approached the Raptor, looking very military with the gun turrets, but the exposed bridge threw that off. Sure, she could probably pack a punch, but she was no match for a _Valkyrie_ -class battlestar, let alone the Bucket.

"What do we do?" Skulls asked, "Do we run, or stay?"

"Either one of them could piss them off..." Racetrack muttered, "They haven't shot at us yet..."

At that moment, something seemed to launch out of the vessel - and for a brief moment, Racetrack though she was seeing a supersized Cylon! It was roughly eighteen meters tall, colored a dark green color, and had a shield on its right shoulder, and a single spike on its left. It didn't seem to have any weapons out however as it slowly approached. Oddly enough, it seemed to have its right arm raised in the universal signal for 'don't shoot'.

"Uh...thinkin' we should jump, Racetrack."

"Not happening, not yet." Racetrack said. "Get that thing on the horn."

Skulls got to work, simply putting the wireless on general wide-band. "you're on." He said.

Racetrack let out a breath, knowing that the next thing she says could get them killed. "This is Lieutenant Edmonson, callsign Racetrack, Colonial Naval Defence Forces, assigned to the Battlestar _Galactica_. Please state your identity."

The machine seemed to pause for a moment, as it seemed to glance back at the ship it came from. After a tense minute of silence back, the comm crackled to life. " _...his is Captain Archibald Civman, of the Zeon Starship_ Siegfried." A voice - a very _human_ voice said, causing the crew of the Raptor to blink. " _Excuse me for sounding blunt, but… are you human? Are you from the Earth Federation?_ "

Racetrack blinked. Earth Federation? "Uh...no." She said, "I mean, yes, we're human, but we're from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. We're searching for Earth: it's our 13th colony."

There was yet another long pause on the comm, before the Captain of the vessel spoke again. " _I… believe this requires a more face-to-face discussion, Lieutenant Edmonson._ " Captain Civman said. " _If you would not mind, I would like to speak with you on board my ship._ "

Racetrack gulped a bit, "Thank you… Captain, but we must… report back to our vessel, soon." she said, "We arrived here by accident… and I believe our Commander and our President would be able to explain our… situation to you much better than I could."

Again, there was a much longer pause. Racetrack was beginning to feel very nervous - it was possible they wouldn't let them go, thinking they were spies for an enemy of theirs… however, after another minute of waiting, the comm snapped to life again. " _Very well, Lieutenant._ " Civman said, " _Please do return with your leaders quickly… I believe we will all have_ much _to discuss about._ "

Skulls cut the wireless. "Ok, spin up the FTL drive: we're going back NOW." The Raptor backed away from the ship and the 'Cylon' just before the ship disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

 **Battlestar _Galactica_**

* * *

Admiral Adama could not say he wasn't pleased. They might've misjumped, but they DID find a world that was inhabited by people that were probably once from Earth. "Job well done, both of you." Adama said. "Get some rack time. I'll inform the President. Once we get a green light, I'll take _Galactica_ there personally."

Racetrack and Skulls both saluted, before they left CIC. "I can't believe this..." Saul Tighe muttered, "A whole planet, _with_ humans, who _know_ about Earth?"

"We saw her camera footage and the Comm recording." Adama said, "At the very least, this is worth checking out… we might actually be close to getting an ally on our side against the Cylons… and maybe even a clear path back to Earth."

Tigh was tempted to dive - literally - back into the bottle. Starbuck's insane rescue mission, now this? What was next, a Corps of engineers battlestar? "This is crazy, Bill, and there's only so much crazy I can take." He said.

"Last thing I need you to do right now is get drunk." Adama said. "I'll call the President. Maybe she'll have something to say about it."

* * *

He was right. She did. "How can you be sure this isn't some elaborate plot by the Cylons, Admiral?" President Roslin asked. "They've done weirder things in the past."

Adama had to point out that she had a point: he knew first hand about that bitch Kelby, who was going to force them to lose the war. If it weren't for that ballsy trick the Admiralty used, they would have. Still, the _Osiris_ was the cost of that operation.

"Madam President, _Galactica_ can handle anything thrown at her by these people." Adama said assuringly, causing Roslin to blink.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"I'll take _Galactica_ there personally." Adama said. " _Pegasus_ can defend the fleet until our return."

"Why not just take a Raptor?" Roslin asked.

"These people could be allies, but we need to show them we've got teeth of our own." Adama said. "We don't know what their technology is like, or if they're really a peaceful people, but we need to be prepared for anything. And if they _do_ turn hostile, at least we'll be prepared."

Roslin bit her lower lip slightly, and she had to admit Adama _had_ a point - they had to send a message that the Colonials were still strong. The _Pegasus_ would be more than enough to defend the fleet - if _Galactica_ could pull it off for the majority of the time they've been exiled from their homes by the Cylons, a _Mercury-_ class Battlestar could pull it off just as effectively.

Finally, the president sighed "Alright… but be careful." She said, "So far we've only seen one of their ships - as far as we know, that was one of their _smaller_ ships. And we have no idea what kind of weapons or defenses they have."

"I plan on being ready, Laura."

* * *

 **Nebular cloud**

 **U.C 1338**

* * *

The news of the appearance of a ship - a scout ship, but a ship no less - in the nebula that wasn't one of theirs had spread like wildfire. The Navy had tried to control the rumors, but the damage had been done, and everyone wanted answers. And that was what they were going to get, as the flagship of the navy approached the same location the _Siegfried_ found the Raptor.

Said flagship was among one of the largest vessels constructed by Zeon - the _Deikun-_ class Battleship. Roughly 1,600 meters long, with enough firepower that could decimate a Federation fleet from back home if such a vessel were present during the time of the Neo Zeon Wars. Inspired by the design of ships such as the _Rewloola_ and _Gwadan,_ it was the embodiment of the ideals of Zeon.

On the bridge of the vessel - its name presented proudly on its hull as the N.Z.S _Asarum,_ a man wearing a black Zeon uniform stood before the video conference between Zeon's Military and government heads. The man in question had short black hair, and dark blue eyes with a short beard. " _Are we certain that this craft was not of Federation origin?_ " The prime minister of Zeon asked - Gregory D'vall asked.

" _Captain Cival sent us the records - the craft wasn't like anything we've seen the Federation use._ " A Zeon General said. " _Even if they were the Federation, why the deceit? Why claim their from a 'Colonial Defense force'?_ "

"Whoever they are, they _are_ familiar with Earth." The Man wearing the Admiral uniform said, scratching his chin. "But the referred to it as the 13th Tribe… its possible a lot has happened since we've been gone, its been nearly a millennia and a half since we've last seen or heard from the Earth Sphere… or this could be something else entirely... all that we _can_ confirm is that whoever these people are, they are human."

" _Are you sure that it is wise to head out on your own, Admiral Aznable?_ " the Prime Minister asked. " _We don't know what kind of force they could send to meet you…_ "

Fleet Admiral Aren Aznable smiled a bit "Call it a gut feeling, but I believe one ship will be all we need." He said, "Plus, we do not wish to give them the belief that we're aggressive. We must treat this like we would treat a first contact scenario. Let's all just be thankful that they speak english."

A massive flash appeared nearby, producing a ship of near equal size to the _Asarum_ , only shaped akin to a sort of alligator and a whale, with massive pods on the sides that were extending from the side of the ship, bearing a name and hull number: _Galactica_ , BS75.

"And they are here." Aren said, "I shall contact you later - for now, I have a first contact to deal with." He shut off the comm with command, "Hail the new vessel."

The Comm officer nodded, as a comm link was patched into the vessel. "This is Fleet Admiral Aren Aznable, of the New Zeon Naval Self-Defense Force, to the vessel _Galactica_." He spoke, "We welcome you to the New Munzo System."

" _This is Rear Admiral William Adama, commanding the Battlestar_ Galactica. _Thank you, Admiral. I presume you're going to want to talk to us face to face?_ " And they weren't using visual communication. That was troubling.

"Yes, rear Admiral." Aren said, "We are prepared to receive you here, though if you wish we are more than willing to meet with you onboard your vessel."

" _We'll begin maneuvering for docking._ " The link cut as the ship began turning rather swiftly for its' size. It wasn't a dime-turn, but it was far better then most ships in the Zeon fleet. Hell, it turned better than the _Asarum_ , which was saying something: the two ships were almost the same size.

The helmsman of the _Asarum_ thankfully was more than able to compensate for this, as the _Asarum_ lined up with the _Galactica's_ side, as the docking clamps of both ships extended. Since the _Asarum_ possessed a universal docking clamp, it was easily able to connect to the _Galactica's_ own.

"Get Sergeant Apone and Linna Team at the Air Lock." The Admiral said as he headed for the exit. "Time to make history."

* * *

 **Meanwhile - _Galactica_ Airlock**

* * *

Adama forwent the dress uniform, and a squad of Marines escorted the man as he and the President waited for their counterparts to arrive. "As long as they know where Earth is, I just hope they know what the hell's going on with-"

"The Cylons?" Adama finished, shaking his head. "I'm not sure. They were surprised from what Racetrack told me."

A few moments passed, before the airlock finally opened, and they were greeted by a man wearing a black and gold uniform, who looked a tad bit younger than Adama, though not by much. With him was a squad of men and women wearing a type of body armor which arguably looked old, yet advance at the same time, with a flashlight behind their left shoulders, their armor classical military dark green and black, and each one wielding Assault Rifle-like weapons.

"Admiral Adama, I presume?" The man asked.

"Yes." Adama said nodding. "And you are?"

"Fleet Admiral Aren Aznable, New Zeon Navy." The man said nodding, "Glad to meet you face-to-face, Admiral."

"Likewise." Adama said, before he gesutred to the President. "This is President Laura Roslin."

Roslin extended her hand to the Zeon Admiral. "Admiral. A pleasure."

"Pleasure is all mine, Madam President." Aren said, accepting the hand as they shook. "Welcome aboard."

"Please follow me." The Old man led them down the halls of the ship, escorted by the Colonial Marines.

"Tell me, how did you pull off that little trick of yours?" Aren asked, "When your… scout vessel vanished, and when your capital ship appeared? Cloaking technology? Faster-then-light travel?"

"The latter." Adama said. "It's basically a folding space drive system."

"Interesting… " Aren said, "We haven't been able to get around to that tech yet… made the trip here from home pretty long."

"By home, you mean Earth?" Adama asked. "Do you have the coordinates? Even if there's a fair amount of drift, we could make it there in a few dozen jumps."

Aren rose his eyebrow at that, as they entered what seemed to be a meeting room of some kind. "Yes… though why would you need them?" He asked, "You certainly know about Earth… however, your pilot referred to something about the 'twelves colonies of Kobol'. Its been over a thousand and a half years since we last saw or heard anything from the earth sphere… I assumed thing there would _obviously_ change after so long… but by the way you and your pilot voiced it, you're not from Earth… or our old Solar system at all."

"No." Adama said, as the leaders al sat down. "Our homeworld is Kobol, but all of us come from the Cyrannus system, which is gods know how far from here. But we recently lost them to nuclear strikes from the Cylons."

Aren rose an eyebrow at that "Excuse me, Cylons?" He asked. "Are they… an Alien race of some kind?"

"No. They're a race of machines." Roslin said. "We created them to make life easier for us. They rebelled. We barely fought them off, and we didn't see them for 40 years. Then they turned around and nuked our worlds. And it's worse: they aren't the walking chrome toasters we're used to anymore."

The Fleet Admiral was able to piece together what she was saying "They found a way to appear human?" He asked, "Or Humanoid at least?"

"Yes." Adama said nodding, "Its hard to believe, but I've seen them… we have some Human Cylons with us if you want proof."

"And… your ship is the only survivor from this… nuclear holocaust?" Aren asked.

Roslin glanced at Adama, who sighed but nodded. "No… there are other survivors." She said, " _Galactica_ has been protecting a fleet of refugees since the fall, even though another ship - the _Pegasus_ \- joined us a few months ago. Though as you could imagine, as fine vessels _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ are and with such experienced crews, its been difficult to defend an entire fleet of over seventy ships and over 47,800 people on their own. All of our hopes rest in finding the 13th Tribe of Kobol… Earth."

"You believe Earth is this… thirteenth Tribe?" Aren asked, raising an eyebrow at that. "That would imply that humans on earth were not _from_ earth… but evidence shows humans have been around on earth for hundreds of thousands of years, after millions of years of evolution."

"I'm only telling you what we know." Adama said. "We're desperate to get a place safer than space, and _Galactica_ can't defend our people forever: she'll break down eventually, and _Pegasus_ will suffer the same fate, if the Cylons don't kill us all first."

Aren seemed to be silent for a moment, deep in thought before he spoke "Its… possible that I can work something out with the Prime Minister here." He said, "If your people are Refugees… we could allow you and your people to live here at New Munzo. There's more than enough space on the planet to allow another surface-based colony."

Roslin nodded. "I'll have to clear it with the Quorum of Twelve." She said. "Some of them may want to continue the search for Earth."

"I… would advise against that, Madam President." Aren said. "When we left Earth, they were still suffering the fallout from the Neo Zeon movements, as well as dealing with their own overpopulation issues. While that likely may have changed after a thousand years… even we cannot guess what the Earth sphere is like now. Weather or not the Federation still exists, or if the colonies are even there…"

"We'll have to take our chances of their voters say otherwise." Roslin said.

"We could use supplies: food, water, medical equipment and parts for our ships." Adama said. _"Galactica's_ in need of a major overhaul as is."

"I'll see what I can do, Admiral." Aren said nodding, "We have supplies to spare, as we've built an abundance of them over the years. Though keep in mind, the New Zeon senate likely won't just hand such things over… they may ask for a technological exchange between your people and ours."

"We've got a number of Raptors that are smashed beyond hope of repair: maybe we can hand over an FTL drive or two." Adama said.

"That would be appreciated," Aren said. "Though before we can make any official deals, I must contact the senate… needless to say, this is a very… unique situation we're all in."

"I'd say." Roslin said, "We've never had a first contact situation before, and it's not exactly going the way I imagined it would. At least you're human and not, well, aliens."

Adama snorted at Roslin's comment. "If they were, I'd walk out an airlock and not come back." he muttered.

* * *

 **several lightyears away**

* * *

A 15 kilometer long monster spewed fire from dozens of gun turrets, putting up a field of flak the likes of which would never be seen for a long time. A super-sized battlestar was fighting off a horde of baseships, and was winning...if barely. This was the 22nd battlestar dreadnought, the only one of her class: BSD-22 _Zeus_. The battlestar dreadnoughts were a response to the battlestar's weaknesses: they needed a support fleet to operate for an extended period of time and lacked the pure firepower to kill a baseship, as well as lacking proper CIWS, relying on flak screens and fighters.

The first BSD was the _Thanatos_ , which served in the war with flying colors, but her flaws were made apparent, and were fixed with the following _Gaia_ -Class, which produced 6 ships. The most numerous was the _Artemis_ -Class, which was the smallest of the BSD line, focusing more on the defensive then the offensive. The largest and most powerful, however, was the mighty _Zeus_ , which packed over 128 15cm hypervelocity railguns in two-gun turrets, and a grand total of 16 bow hypervelocity cannons.

The Colonial Corps of Engineers planned to make a production run of fifteen over a 20 year period...until Adar came into office. He cancelled the project, only allowing the _Zeus_ to be completed and all of the BSDs scrapped. The CCE didn't exactly follow his orders, instead stripping the ships of all but their CIWS systems, ready to be refit at a moment's notice.

Most of them were spared from the fall, but not all of the Corps survived: most of the support fleets were either wiped out or reduced to almost nothing. But the _Zeus_ was still alive, trying to keep the largest remnant from dying at the hands of a large group of baseships. And while she was succeeding, there was one issue: she was running out of ammo.

Thankfully, the _Zeus_ was not alone - as out of the 90 ships among its fleet, 30 of the vessels were dedicated combat vessels, including battlestars, heavy cruisers, escort cruisers, and 50 other support ships, and roughly 20 civilian ships. All of these military vessels firing their own coverage of weapons fire at the incoming Cylons, unleashing a never ending wave of flack fire and heavy ordinance - all the while as colonial Raptors and Vipers chased after Cylon Raiders. It was a sight for the ages… but like the _Zeus,_ they were beginning to run low on ammo.

"Just keep firing! I don't care if you have to start putting ROCKS in the gun batteries! Don't stop firing!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Status on FTL drives!"

"We're spun up, sir, but half the ships in the fleet need to reset their computers again!"

The acting commander of the fleet, a CCE Commander named Delilah Kaplan, shook her head as the _Zeus_ shot down another baseship using one of her HV guns. "I'm not leaving the civilians behind." She said. "Tell the rest of the fleet to jump: the _Zeus_ will cover the remaining ships until the remaining ones can get out of here! And tell that designer to take command of the jump ships. Gods know he's the only one left with a real commission."

"Yes Ma'am!" The reply came as the order was issued out. Not to long after, one by one the CCE vessels Jumped away through FTL as they left the battlezone, as the _Zeus_ continued to pour out ammo against the incoming fleet, holding off the Cylons long enough for the remaining ships to GTFO.

* * *

The BSD _Thanatos_ , refit and having all of her issues fixed, acted as the command and control ship for the fleet. It was also the home for the CCE's semi-insane genius designer, colonel Ronald Pinkerton. Coming from a family of genetically engineered people gave him a longer life then most, as he had served in the old Caprican military as well as the Colonial Fleet, and was probably going to outlive everyone else.

At least, if they survived. But he was bloody, tired and not in the mood for anything but the job. "Sitrep." He said.

"No contacts." The DRADIS operator said. "Just...background shit."

The old man shook his head. "DRADIS sweeps and spin up the drives again." He said. "As soon as we're clear to jump, get us further from those Cylon-"

"DRADIS contacts!"

"Frak; how many!"

"I've got twenty six contacts!" The Operator said, before pausing "Wait… something's not right here… they're not matching any known Cylon profiles… some of the ships are too small to be baseships..."

"Action Stations, condition two." Ron ordered. "Get those things on the horn!"

"Aye, sir!" The _Thanatos_ was in no shape for another prolonged fight. They were down to their last stacks of ammo, and while they had the resources to make more...they didn't have the time. The Cylons had been hounding them since the fall, making sure no one got any sleep, wearing them down to almost nothing. This was the closest they had come to the end.

"Sir, I've got the lead ship on wireless." The Comm officer said. "Patching you through."

Ron put a headset on his head, not in the mood for being pleasant. "This is Colonel Ronald Pinkerton of the battlestar dreadnought _Thanatos_. Identify yourselves, or I swear if you are a threat to my fleet, I WILL destroy you."

" _Well, someone's having a bad day._ " A voice - sounding _very_ human replied. " _This is Rear Admiral Benjamin Freiberg, Commanding officers of the 9th New Zeon Deep Space fleet_ , _onboard the Assault Carrier_ Rewloola II. _Have no fear Colonel, you've… caught us by surprise we admit, but we are not hostile… quite the opposite in fact: are you from the… twelve colonies of Kobol?_ "

"Yes... And I have a fleet of refugees and tired soldiers unable to rest because of-" Ron was cut off as Alarms went off in CIC once more.

"DRADIS contact!" The DRADIS officer shouted. "Damn it, it's them again: same baseships as before!"

"They must've broken off their attack on the Zeus and decided to go after US instead." Ron growled. "Condition One! Get ready for combat!"

" _Colonel, am I to assume these new ships are… Cylons?_ " Rear Admiral Freiberg asked, causing Ron to blink.

"Yes," he said, "But how do you-"

" _Your ships look battered, Colonel… we'll take care of this for you._ " Benjamin said, " _Keep your ships behind us. We'll explain things after the battle is won._ "

"Sir the… New Zeon ships are moving towards the Cylon fleet!" The DRADIS operator said.

* * *

 **Meanwhile - NZS _Rewloola II_**

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Jaden Aznable, a man with short spikey black hair and red eyes climbed into the cockpit of his machine. "All Mobile Suit teams, look sharp!" He said as he strapped himself in. "From what we've gotten on Cylons from the Colonials at Munzo, these guys are tricky with computers. Their equipment shouldn't be Minovsky-proofed, so we're gonna use that to our advantage! Kobi, Matthews, you two will attack them from the rear! All other pilots, target for maximum effect!"'

" _Yes sir!_ " Kobi shouted.

" _But, sir, you'll be-_ " Matthews began, but Jaden smirked.

"I can handle the… diversion on my own." He said, as his machine was loaded onto the first catapult. "Jaden Aznable, Kartikeya, Mobilizing!"

 **BGM: Gundam Unicorn OST - 'UXO-RX0'**

Launching from the _Rewloola II_ was a crimson red and black Mobile Suit, its green Monoeye flashing as it sped towards the Cylon fleet with unimaginable speed. Launching from the other vessels, numerous other Mobile Suits bearing strong resemblances to OYW-era Mobile Suits, such as the ZMS-001 Zaku Soldiers, ZMS-002 Gouf Grapplers, and ZMS-003 Dom Destroyers.

Jaden's eyes narrowed as he saw the incoming Cylons. From zooming in the camera, he could tell that none of the 'baseships' as the Colonials seemed to call them, had any Anti-Aircraft weaponry outside of their sizable Fighter complement, and its massive amount of missiles - some of which were nuclear. "Once the fleet fires the first Salvo, target for effect!" Jaden said, "This will be the first time Zeon has been in a true battle since the end of the Neo Zeon wars people! Let's make the homeland proud! Sieg Zeon!"

" _SIEG ZEON!_ " Came the united battlecry as the New Zeon fleet opened fire with a full salvo of Mega Particle cannon fire, which arced towards the Cylon fleet. The Minovsky Particle-charged beams spearheaded through the Cylon fleet - even the ships and Raiders that weren't directly in its way suddenly began to float away lifelessly due to the EMP effect the Minovsky Particles possessed. When the beams themselves impacted against the Cylon Baseships, it resulted in _massive_ damage, as they not only melted away their armor, they literally _tore_ the Baseships into pieces, and vaporized any Raiders between them and their targets. The battle had barely begun, and already twenty Baseships were out of the fight.

"Diving in!" Jaden shouted, as he dived into the Cylon fleet. Firing his Beam Rifle into the incoming Raiders, each hit scoring an immediate kill, as he used his head vulcans to intercept any missiles. Several Raiders tried to moved behind him, however, six Funnels deployed from the shoulders of the machine as they shot each Radier from out of space. Jaden flew through the Cylon fleet, weaving through the weapons fire of the Cylon Raiders as he fired his shield-mounted Megaparticle Cannons, heavily damaging any Baseships, blasting their hangers before they could even try to launch more Raiders.

" _Its the Battle of Loum all over again!_ " A Zeon piloting a Zaku shouted, as his Beam Axe cleaved through a Heavy Raider. " _Its a bonafide turkey shoot!_ "

" _Keep the pressure on e'm!_ " A Dom Destroyer pilot shouted, as he and two others sped between the Baseships, firing their mega particle Bazookas at the Cylon ships, carving them apart. " _Teach these guys not to mess with friends of Zeon!_ "

Jaden chuckled as he gunned down yet another Raider. "Got that right!" He said, as his Funnels returned to their births. "Don't give them any ground! Sieg Zeon!"

* * *

Onboard the _Thantos,_ the eyes of the CCE crewmen and officers were all wide as they looked at the DRADIS screens or through the windows as they watched the spectacle before them. The Cylons were being _slaughtered_ by the New Zeon forces, who have yet to lose a single ship, and barely any of their strange, humanoid machines were being damaged. Not only that, but it seemed as if the Zeon weapons were _disabling_ any Cylon Raiders or Baseships, even if they weren't the intended targets!

"Keep our Vipers on standby for launch." Ron said. "The Cylons aren't stupid: they'll start using their Raiders' FTL drives to bypass their defenses to nuke their motherships. We're going to counter that."

"Aye sir." The old engineer knew the Cylons: he helped make the 0005 model prototypes. They adapted to their enemy.

"Sir, some of the Raiders are pulling away from the main attack force."

"Launch Vipers. We might be on our last legs, but I will not stand by and let them win."

* * *

Hundreds of Mk II, III and VII Vipers left the launch tubes, heading for a BarCAP near the Zeon fleet. "You know the plan: you see a toaster, plug it!"

" _Yes sir!_ " Came the reply from the Viper pilots.

As Ron had predicted, the Raiders activated their FTL systems as they jumped away from their fleet, as they appeared a fair distance away from the Zeon fleet, and began their missile Run. However, the Zeon fleet quickly detected the incoming Raiders, as whatever CIWS or Mobile Suits weren't engaging the Cylons quickly targeted the incoming Cylons in a hail of weapons fire.

But the swarm wasn't that easy to get rid of. The Zeon pilots were not used to shooting down small targets like the Raiders, and the CIWS, while good at tracking them, was more used to missiles, which only flew in a more or less straight line. Raiders were like swallows, and moved like them. The Colonials were used to that, and they had the right fighter for the job.

" _Their fast - but they still move like a bunch of Feddie Balls!_ " A Zeon pilot shouted, as their Zaku cleaved a Raider in half. " _Keep on your toes people, don't let e'm box you in! Target the fighters with high Rad signatures! They must be carrying nukes!_ "

A raider fired off a number of missiles, all heading for the Zeon flagship. The Vipers fired at the missiles, attempting to prevent them from hitting the carrier and detonating. If they blew, the ship would be lost. One Mk VII stopped firing, but continued to chase the missile he was tryign to destroy. "Frak! Skosh!" He couldn't let the nuke detonate, so he engaged the afterburners, getting ahead of the missile before letting it hit his Viper, destroying both.

" _Whoa! Son of a bitch!_ " A Dom pilot shouted as the nuke went off, the blast almost reaching the Zeon ships, as their Minovsky barrier shields flared from the energy of the blast. " _Did you guys SEE that?! he just… flew ahead of it!_ "

" _His sacrifice will NOT be in vain!_ " A pilot of a ZMS-004 Gelgoog Warrior shouted, as his machine's double-bladed beam sword twirled around. " _Let's finish them off! Sieg Zeon!_ "

The battle continued for several minutes, as the Colonial-Zeon forces operated together, as the Zeon mobile weapons decimated the Cylon fleet, as the colonials help ensure no more Raiders would try a stunt like THAT again, covering their new allies with a significant fighter screen. It wasn't long until, finally, the Cylon fleet was reduced to just a pair of heavily damaged Baseships, which immediately jumped away.

" _Enemy forces have withdrawn - that's what you get when you mess with Zeon!_ " A Gouf Grappler pilot shouted, as the Zeon forces all cheered out in victory.

The Colonial ships were less cheerful. The Vipers returned to their ships in mute silence. They had been fighting for months, almost non-stop, barely a moment to rest. Now they finally had that chance. Celebrations would have to wait. Flashes of light signalled the arrival of the _Zeus_ and the ships left behind.

"Zeus _to_ Thantos - _sorry about the delay, but more… Cylons..._ " the Wireless was silent for a moment. " _Colonel Pinkerton, what the FRAK is going on here?_ "

" _It's a long story that I don't have all the pieces to._ " Ron said, before another flash signalled the arrival of a ship more welcome: a battlestar named _Galactica_. " _Holy shit. The Old Man._ "

" _This is the Battlestar_ Galactica _to the NZS_ Rewloola II." A voice which was _very_ familiar to anyone from the Cyrannus System. " _We received your message, though it looks like we're late for the party._ "

Benjamin chuckled a bit " _Not a problem,_ Galactica." He said, " _But we seem to have picked up a few… friends of yours it seems._ "

" _We've noticed._ " Adama said. " _Battlestar dreadnought_ Thanatos, _this is_ Galactica. _Who's in command?_ "

" _Pinkerton, Ronald, Colonel in the Corps of Engineers._ " Ron said, " _Bill, we thought you were dead! The last message we got said to regroup at Ragnar, then-_ "

" _We've got a hell of a story to tell, Ron, just like you. We're sending you coordinates to rendezvous with the rest of the Fleet._ "

"Fleet?"

"Galactica _has been protecting a fleet of civilians since we left the colonies, and we recently picked up the Battlestar_ Pegasus." Adama said, " _Like I said, we'll explain later._ "

" _We've got repairs and rearming to do in the meantime, and my engineering crews are in need of doing something that isn't repairing battle damage. I'll send whoever's willing to strip those baseships of equipment and ammo, supplies: anything useful. If you can help, Commander, I'd be happy. Just as a warning, though, if Cain's in command of_ Pegasus _, I WILL kill her._ "

" _She's dead._ "

" _GOOD!_ "

* * *

 **One Day Later - New Munzo**

* * *

The _Galactica, Pegasus,_ and their fleet had arrived at New Munzo after determining that the system was safe - and the fleet was more than glad when multiple colonial ships began to appear, including battlestars, cruisers, and other ships, as President Roslin was more than happy to - for once - increase the population of the colonials astronomically. After the colonials arrived, the leaders of New Zeon explained to them the same story that they had told Adama and Roslin.

"So… you're from Earth?" Delilah asked, as she and Ron were present onboard the _Asarum,_ with Adama, Roslin, and Admiral Aznable.

"Yes." Aren said nodding, "We left Earth well over a thousand years ago, to find a new world to call our own. It was considered for the best, as we believed the earth sphere would be better off if Zeon left for a while after all that had happened. We've lived here at New Munzo, with no contact from Earth or anyone… well, until one of your Colonial Raptors appeared here."

"The Thirteenth Tribe left Kobol at the same time as the rest, around nine or ten thousand years ago." Ron said. "We settled the entire Cyrannus system, and until 60 years ago, we weren't exactly a united people. I would know: I was around. Then graystone developed this." Ron pulled out a blueprint of a very stripped down machine. It was a humanoid robot, with no outer coverings. "This is the U-87, prototype for Caprica's Cybernetic Lifeform Node weapons program. The short hand was Cylon, which has stuck. I was involved in developing the Model 0005, the final Colonial-designed and built models."

"So _this_ is a Cylon… " Aren muttered, looking at the specs. "Its surprising how similar they look to our early MS prototypes… "

"Parallel evolution's a bitch." Ron said. "They rebelled. 12 years of blood war later, they just disappear without a trace, then 8 months ago, they came back and nuked our asses. 50 billion people died, and the matter's made worse by the fact that they don't look like machines anymore."

"So Adama and Roslin had told us." Aren said nodding. "Humanoid A.I… its not unheard of, but we had never reached the point of actually giving them a body… well, with the exception of A.L.I.C.E in a way."

"Alice?" Adama asked, "Who's that?"

"A.L.I.C.E, or Advanced Logistic and Inconsequence Cognizing Equipment, was one of the first Experimental A.I created by the Earth Federation during the time period of the Neo Zeon Wars." Aren said, "It… or rather she controlled the MSA-0011 S Gundam during the New Decides incident. She was instrumental in bringing the organization down, even going so far as to sacrifice her memories and her existence to save three of her comrades, and defeat New Decides - despite not needing to nor was she ordered or programmed to do so… "

"That's interesting and all, but that is irrelevant to the situation." Ron said. "The bastards tried to kill humanity, and now they'll be targeting you next now that they know you exist."

"I think we can handle ourselves."

"I don't think you CAN'T, but these bastards are highly adaptive and highly intelligent." Ron said. "I would be ready to take on your own equipment soon."

Aren smirked slightly "You're saying that as if we don't already," he said. "Zeon may not have been in a war for over a thousand years, but we've always known it was possible we could meet… less than friendly ET's, or that an old Earth faction may try to hound us out. Our technology in all areas has been advancing, as well as improvements to our military. Not to mention the Cylons can't attack what they can't find… you no doubt detected the nebula around the planet, correct? The Nebula disrupts your DRADIS from what we have discovered, as do our Minovsky particles. For as long as your ships remain within the Nebula… the Cylons cannot find you. And even if they did, the Orbital Defense Platforms would make… quick work of anyone who came here… uninvited."

He pulled out a document "Also, I recieved a message from the Prime Minister a few hours ago." he said, "I submitted a proposal to him… considering the unique situation your people are in, the Prime Minister and the senate has agreed to allow your people to live here on New Munzo."

Roslin and the others rose an eyebrow at that "You… your Prime Minister would just allow that?" She asked, as the Admiral shrugged.

"There's plenty of space to go around on the planet," Aren said. "We only have a few major cities on the planet surface and a few small outposts. Most of our population prefer to live in the colonies orbiting the planet itself. We only have colonies on the planet for the sake of gathering resources we can't get from asteroid mining. The Colonies would be allowed to remain independent from New Zeon if they wish it, and we would aid in the construction of a full colony on the surface."

Aren leaned forward a bit "I know you wish to find Earth… and we won't stop you." he said, "But at the very least, New Munzo would be an ideal place where your civilians can live, and _be safe_ without the constant threat of Cylon Attacks, while your fleets search for Earth. This way they would not only have the full protection of your forces - but the New Zeon Defense Forces as well."

The Colonel nodded. "I'd like to work with your engineering crews: outfit them with FTL drives should any of them wish to join our search." Ron said. "And don't tell me no one wants to find out what happened to Earth over the last few centuries."

"I'd be lying if I myself wasn't curious." Aren admitted, "We've already begun recalling our deep-space fleets to RTB. Though if it is possible, I would like for your CCE to meet with each fleet, refit their ships with your FTL drives so they can make the trip much faster. The sooner they do, the sooner we can commit an exploration fleet to return to earth… of course they're gonna have to account for over a thousand years worth of stellar drift."

"Good thing for us that there is a VERY good FTL calculations expert in the Corps." Adama said with a small smirk.

"And who would that be?"

"Yo." Ron said raising his hand. "I can plot FTL jumps using out of date star charts to within 500 kilometers of the intended target. I've done it before, many times."

"If you could teach some of our navigators how to plot jumps, we'd be grateful." Aren said. "I'd rather avoid causing any… accidents."

"I can handle teaching your navigational personnel how to plot FTL jumps." Ron said. "But the best teachers are Raptor pilots. A commodity that we're rather short of, if you get my meaning. But I'll show them how to make basic jumps. I'll handle the star charts when I'm done. Send them to the _Athena_ : it's the one that looks like an enlarged version of _Pegasus_ with turrets."

"I'll send word to our top navigators to be sent there." Aren said nodding, "Though for now, I believe you and your people _all_ deserve some time to rest from what I've heard. We've had quite the exciting day afterall."

"Try year." Ron said, before he left the briefing room, heading back to the hangar.

"The CCE was a high-priority target for the Cylons, Admiral." Adama said, "The Colonel was very close to his people. And they had over 600 ships."

"And considering they have far _less_ than that..." Aren said nodding, "I can't imagine what he, and your people have been through… "

"We'll begin rearming and repairing every ship in their fleet." Adama said. "I think the civilians would benefit from seeing the President."

Roslin smiled. "I think they would." She said, "Living under marshal law since the fall? They deserve to live normally, even under these conditions."

"We're also going to need an officer as an attache for the Colonel." Adama said, "Someone to familiarize him with your operations and vice versa."

Aren smirked "I know just the person… " he said, pulling up a file. "Lieutenant Commander Jaden Aznable… I suppose you could say he's the greatest engineer Zeon has ever had. He helped design the new Phase IV series of Mobile Suits, and he personally designed the _Rewloola II-_ class Assault Carriers. He's among the craziest people in Zeon… and my son."

"Once the Colonel is done with his own issues, I'll send a courier."

"He's on the ship. Why not-"

"His father was Tauron." Adama said. "They take family very seriously. My father was Tauron, so I would know. And he considered the Corps family. He's going to be enraged for a while. And I've learned not to get in the way of his mourning, otherwise people die."

* * *

 **Later - _Galactica_ Flight Deck**

* * *

"Alright, bring e'm in slowly!" Jaden said as he gestured at the Zaku Worker Types as they unloaded several large MS-sized trailers onto _Galactica's_ port flight pod. "Don't damage the surface - last thing we want is the Colonials having our asses cause we dented one of their flagships!"

"And what exactly are you doing?" A man in a midnight blue version of the Colonial uniform approached the Zeon team, looking slightly irritated and mostly sleep deprived. "I don't think the Chief authorized any off-loads."

"It's authorized, mister-?" Jaden asked.

"Pinkerton, colonel, Colonial Corps of Engineers." Ron said. "You are?"

"Ah, right - you were at the battle." Jaden said smiling, "Lieutenant Commander Jaden Aznable, Zeon Engineering Corps." He then pointed at the trailers as they were lowered down to the surface of the flight pod. "As a gesture of good faith, I managed to talk ZEC and Zeon High Command to give you some… gifts."

He pressed a button on his wrist device, before two of the trailers opened, revealing two large humanoid machines. "These are some old mobile suits the Earth Federation used during the Neo Zeon Wars." Jaden said, "We mostly use these for training purposes… but they are still very capable machines, more than a match to anything the Cylons probably have." he pointed to the left machines "Right there is the RGM-89 Jegan - standard Federation MS and the pinnacle of Modern mobile weapons back in the UC 0090s'. Its got plenty of variants - which you are getting - and have been upgraded so they can keep up with modern Zeon standards."

He then pointed to the right, "And there is a machine I think you Colonials will _love._ " he said with a small smirk, "The RGZ-95 ReZEL, its a transformable mobile suit which can alter between MS and Mobile Armor mode - which takes the form of a fighter. It can fight both in atmosphere and in space, and even today has amazing mobility, and firepower."

"Give me four weeks and access to your technology, and those things will be more lethal then ever."

"Seriously?"

"I'm the head designer of the Corps and one of the smartest frakers in the known universe." Ron said grinning, "And a VERY fast learner. These things wouldn't happen to use a plasma energy weapon? Magnetic containment field, I take it?"

"Pretty much yeah." Jaden said, "Most of our beam weaponry nowadays is based off of Mega Particle cannon tech - charged by Minovsky Particles. They give off an EMP effect where, unless the ship or MS is protected specifically for M-Particles, it shuts them down _completely_ \- as you saw from the Cylon fleet a few days ago." Jaden chuckled a bit "It was the Battle of Loum all over again."

"Battle of Loum?" Ron asked.

"First major battle of the One Year War." Jaden said, "The Earth Federation had almost everything - numbers, manpower, firepower… by all means Zeon should've lost the battle… if it wasn't for Minovsky Physics and Mobile Suits. M-Particles disrupt communications and guided weapons, making it difficult for missiles and guns to track unless you're eyeballing them. So the long-range weapons of Feddie battleships were rendered nearly useless… and then Char came in, with the Mobile Suits... MS were designed for close-combat, so since the feddies couldn't trace and target them, it was an absolute _slaughter._ Zeon forces cut feddie cruisers and battleships to pieces - and Char Aznable himself sunk five Feddie battleships _solo_ in the first few minutes of the battle in his red Zaku II. Its what got him the nick-name 'The Red Comet'."

"It was the same thing against the Cylons - only it was even _worse_ for them." Jaden said shaking his head, "They had _no_ AA defenses aside from their Raiders and Missiles, their Raiders - while exceptionally mobile - couldn't stand a chance when a MS got in close. One of our Dom's could just sit next to a Baseship, and unload into its hull without much to worry about as his wingmen kept the Raiders off him."

"The modern baseships were designed as missile carriers." Ron said. "The older ones served as actual battleships, akin to our battlestars. But the backdoor into the CNP let them...in so they could missile spam our asses into oblivion. Cylons assholes wrote that backdoor into the program and fraked us."

"Whoever designed that CNP was an incompetent fool then if he couldn't find something as simple as a backdoor." Jaden said. "Hell, from what I understand 'bout those Cylons, it may of been wise to develop a function which would allow your ships to immediately switch off the CNP, and go back to the standards you had during the Cylon War. It seems they were good at hacking afterall."

"The CCE did, but you missed my point." Ron said. "A Cylon rewrote half the coding in the CNP prior to it being implimented throughout the Fleet. THEY put in the backdoor."

Jaden rose an eyebrow at that "So it wasn't a traitor, but rather one of those human Cylons I keep hearing about?" he asked. "Do you have any way to determine who is a Cylon, and who's not?"

"With all the shit going on, I never had the chance to develop a detector, although it seems Baltar did." Ron said. "The ironic part is, he's the one who wrote the CNP. Either he got screwed by the Cylons - literally, as the fraker's a massive playboy - or he actively betrayed us. I'm leaning towards the former, personally, but that doesn't mean he's getting off scotfree. I'm still beating the shit out of him."

"What's stopping you?" Jaden asked, "From what I've read, the guy deserves it. Hell if it wouldn't cause a potential international incident I'd probably do it too."

"He's the vice-president now." Ron said, "That means he's more or less untouchable. Speaking of untouchable..." An unwelcome sight marched down the hangar deck, decked out in a suit. "Thomas Zarek. What I wouldn't give to put a magnum round between his eyes."

The man didn't notice Ron's animosity towards him. "You must be the Colonel I've heard about." He said as he began to reach ou this hand, "I'm-"

"Tom Zarek, the terrorist." Ron shot back, glaring at him. "Sorry, but I don't shake hands with rebels and murderers. walk away before I decide my commission isn't worth you continuing to suck down precious oxygen."

"Geez, what did _he_ do?" Jaden asked, though he had to admit the guy - just by glancing at him - was reminding him all too much of Gihren Zabi.

"He blew up a government building, and killed 50 of my people." Ron said. "All in the name of independence, which is rather pointless when we need to be united."

"Sagittaron has been oppressed for centuries, Colonel." Tom said, "I have a right to fight-"

"You have NO right to kill people simply because you don't like the status quo, Zarek." Ron growled, "Piss off, before I manhandle you into a Raptor, put you in front of the _Athena_ 's plasma cannons and vaporize you."

Tom sighed, but walked off. "We _could_ find a way to kill him… make it look 100% accidental too." Jaden whispered to Ron. "E-Caps can be very… _unstable_."

"I think I prefer my method." Ron said. "Sends a message that we need to stick together, not listen to fools like him. But that's why I'm a member of the military, not a political ass. I'd like one of the ReZELs sent to the _Zeus_ : I'll see what I can do to it with our equipment before I look at your stuff."

"You got it." Jaden said nodding, "We've got plenty of these things to spare, can can easily make more. I'll send you some extra data on MS mechanics and related technology so you can get familiar with it all."

The Colonel nodded before he began to sway a little. "I haven't slept in five weeks." He said yawning. "I should get back to my ship before I fall unconscious. Send one of them over when I'm conscious and properly lucid."

Jaden chuckled "You got it." he said, "Sweet dreams, Colonel."

* * *

 **Battlestar Dreadnought _Zeus_ \- 12 hours later**

* * *

The one ship no one (not even Zeon, who, while having heavily armed ships themselves, could barely hold a candle to THAT thing) wanted to screw with was finally ready to get back on the line. She had ammo and her crew was rested. And Jaden was touring the massive warship. It was one of the few that could carry Mobile Suits without any major modifications, after all.

"A very impressive ship you've got here..." Jaden mused, "We were planning on building a Dreadnought-type vessel similar to this a while ago… but to actually see a ship of such size and raw firepower..."

"Doesn't help that the man who designed this thing designed just about everything else in the Fleet, too." The Tourguide said.

"And who would THAT be?"

"You've met him: Colonel Pinkerton."

"Hmm, then he and my family have something in common." Jaden said, "The Aznable family founded the Zodiac Corporation and ZEC - which is responsible for building pretty much every mobile suit and ship of Zeon. We're always looking forward towards making some Mobile Weapon or Starship better and badder than the last."

The NCO chuckled. "Then you'd get along." He said. "He's been designing ships in the fleet since the War. He didn't design the _Jupiter_ -Class, which is _Galactica's_ , but the rest, from the _Orion_ -Class pocket BS to this monster? All his. The man gets around. And he's in his late sixties, too: badass grandpa, if he had kids."

"Sixties?" Jaden asked with a raised eyebrow. "He doesn't look that old… do you colonials age differently, or is he an exception? We've made our own methods of hold back aging of course, but still..."

"He's genetically engineered: ages slower then everyone else." He said. "His family normally lives twice as long as the rest of our asses."

" _Very_ Interesting..." Jaden hummed, "Certainly is something Zeon'll have to look into eventually…"

"Big guy might talk to you about it. But the geneticists that did the work were in the family, and they...sort of died during the war. And while he's good at just about everything, genetics aren't something he dives into." The two finally entered the nerve center of the ship, which greatly resembled Galactica's CIC. "Welcome to CIC. The lady at the plotting table's Commander Kaplan, de facto head of the CCE now. I'll get back to my duties, if you don't mind."

Jaden nodded as the NCO left as he approached the plotting table. "Commander Kaplan?" He asked.

Delilah glanced up and nodded "That's me," she said, "You must be Lieutenant Commander Aznable… nice to have you onboard."

"Glad to be here," Jaden said, "You've got one hell of a ship here, Commander."

"The ship is Colonel Pinkerton's." She said. "That grand son of a bitch designed everything from the FTL drives to the main guns. But everyone knows that. I presume you're going to be the Colonel's attache for the Zeon retrofits. I'm going to warn you know that those refits are going to be long and painful."

Jaden chuckled "Hey, that's why they sent _me_ and not a bunch of panzie newbies." he said, "I _love_ giving ships better guns and armor - and once we get this thing fixed wth Mega Particle Guns and Minovksy Barriers, the Cylons won't know what hit e'm if or when we see them again."

"I'll see if those can be fit." Jaden spun around to spot the Colonel, barely wearing his midnight blue uniform jacket. "The frak happened to you, Pink?"

"I downed an entire bottle of my family's toxic brew, Commander. It's what happens when I need to get REALLY drunk." His gaze shifted to Jaden. "The hell's he doing here?"

"He's your new best friend."

"The Colonials and Zeon have officially signed a treaty between your people and ours," Jaden elaborated. "While you were asleep, the civilians have been allowed to land on New Munzo, and we're helping them construct a new settlement to call their own - heard their calling it New Caprica City. With this happening, Zeon has also agreed that, in exchange for your tech, we're going to be retrofitting all of your ships with Zeon technology, from our Megaparticle Cannons, to our Minovsky Barrier shields to give you an edge against the Cylons."

"Hmm. I guess I'll have to allocate quarters on the _Athena_." He said, "She's our primary R &D vessel. Besides, gives me the chance to finally refit those plasma cannons and get them working at long last."

"I can help with that," Jaden said, "What seems to be the problem with e'm?"

"Besides being more advanced then just about every weapon in existence we've got?" Ron asked. "I'm not sure WHAT drugs I was on when I designed and built those cannons, but apparently, I ran out before I could finish them!"

Jaden glanced at the specs for the _Athena's_ plasma cannons, "Hmm, overall the design is good…" he said, "But you need to create a superior focusing conduit - otherwise you'll melt the barrel of the cannons every time you fire. Had a similar problem when we made the Mk-II Mega particle cannons. It also seems like it won't get enough power from your ships reactor… we could do a temporary fix and equip the ship with a few smaller Minovsky reactors, though I suggest we completely replace the old reactor with a full-scale Minovsky reactor once we can. A similar one to the _Rewloola II-_ class's should do the trick, and I think we could fit the same reactor I proposed for the _Zeonica_ on your larger dreadnought-type ships."

"Give me three days to get familiar with your systems and this will be done in a few hours." Ron said.

"That fast?"

"Genetic engineering comes in handy. My ability to adapt to new situations and technologies is better then anyone else's. I'm also fairly drunk."

"Works for me." Jaden said shrugging, "I'll get my engineers ready - they've been looking forward to a challenge like this."

"And I need to pass out." Ron said with a yawn. "I'm still buzzed as frak."

"Take your nap - I'll make some mods to these specs..." Jaden said as he continued to look at the _Athena's_ specs. "Lot of potential in these things once we get them working… "

"Even the oldest ship in the fleet can be upgraded to modern specs: they were made that way." A light snore was heard from the Colonel.

"He's sleeping standing up?"

"He does that a lot lately."

"After everything you've been through? I don't blame him." Jaden said. "I'll get to work with the upgrades till he comes too - make sure your engineers are ready."

"Have fun. I'm sure he will."

* * *

 **Raptor en route back to _Galactica_**

* * *

Starbuck wondered what the hell was going on when she saw a single ship waiting where the fleet was supposed to be. It was a modified _Valkyrie_ -Class battlestar, bearing the markings of BSG-61 and carrying a number of fast-slewing CIWS guns for better close-in defense. "Where the frak is _Galactica_?" She shouted.

Helo shook his head. "I don't know, Captain." He got the new ship on the horn (while happy to see another Colonial warship, this wasn't HIS Colonial warship) to get answers. "This is Raptor 549, assigned to Battlestar _Galactica_ to Battlestar _Horus_. Please respond."

" _Battlestar_ Horus _here - glad to see you Raptor 549._ " The Commander of the _Horus_ said. " _Sending you new jump coordinates now - the rest of the fleet is waiting for us… your in for one HELL of a surprise._ "

"Copy, horus Actual." Helo said, as the small battlestar jumped away, and Helo bagan spooling up the FTL drives.

"Sorry, folks, we're going to be a bit delayed in getting back." Starbuck said. The priest in back smiled kindly. "Not a problem, Captain: I'm more worried about that surprise waiting for us."

"Truth be told? So am I." Starbuck said, adjusting her seat. "Where the hell did the _Horus_ come from? I thought it was destroyed during the Fall..."

The Raptors began to jump, ending up in a nebula, with a massive number of ships, Colonial and...not Colonial. But they sure as hell weren't Cylons. "Who the hell?"

" _Raptors - this is_ Galactica." Adama's voice came up on the wireless, " _Welcome back._ "

"Good… to be back sir, but… what's going on here?" Starbuck asked.

" _Starbuck… we may have finally caught us a break._ " Adama said, " _That's what's up. Come on back and get on_ Galactica - _we'll explain more once you're onboard._ "

"Copy that, Galactica. We're en route now." The Raptors began their flight to land on the battlestar's port flight pod, where they would get their answers.

* * *

 **Battlestar _Athena_**

* * *

"And we're about five seconds from seeing if these modifications actually worked for the cannons." Ron kicked a power conduit into place before tightening it into place.

"Its pretty much the same process we use for our Heavy MP guns, so these all should work together." Jaden said, as he tightened another bolt in. "We should be fortunate that your colonial tech is easily adaptable to Zeon tech, otherwise this'd be a problem."

"I designed every ship with the ability to be easily adapted and refit." Ron said. "The _Jupiters_ are the only exception: I wasn't involved in their design, and we were in a rush to get functioning warships back then."

"I know the feeling," Jaden said, "Zeon had a similar problem during the One Year War. The _Musai_ was our mainstay ship back then, and we made e'm a dime a dozen with good anti-ship firepower, we were rushing to get more ships out to fight the Federation. But when the Feddies made their own MS that screwed us over later on. That lead to variants like the Late Production Type, Final Production Type, and the _Musai Kai_ … but, too little too late."

Ron walked over to a power transfer control panel, then began powering up the cannons. "Plasma flow is stable." Ron said. "Charge at 58% and climbing. The last thing I expected was your old world's lack of unity. Even on the 12 Colonies, there weren't any nation-states: just one planetary government."

"A unified government only works if everyone is on the same page." Jaden said shaking his head. "The Earth Federation stood for the unity of the Earth Sphere, true… but they continued to believe Earth's resources would remain forever, that earth was their only home… when space colonization began, most of the people who moved into space were _forced_ to because the Federation was trying to relieve Earth's overpopulation which was well over the tens of billions at the dawn of the universal century."

"Eventually, the Earth became more and more dependent on space for their resources rather than what they got from earth itself." He continued, "After several decades, overpopulation began to rise once more, but the Federation was barely doing anything about it. Zeon Deikun - the founder of the first Republic of Zeon, believed it was mankind's destiny to leave earth behind, that it should be treated as sacred, as the 'cradle' which mankind has been in since the dawn of human civilization. But it was time for humanity to move out of the crib, and out into the greater void of space, where we would eventually begin the next step of human evolution."

"After all, why should we confine ourselves to a single planet whose resources are fast dwindling?" Jaden said, "We have an entire galaxy to call our home, an entire _universe_ even, with all of its resources ripe to be claimed for us to use. So much to explore, so much to witness… but the Federation was all to contempt to remain in our solar system, letting earth slowly dwindle… and then the Zabi's came into power, and then the Titans, the Vist Foundation… it all made things worse… Spacenoids and Zeon were demonized as monsters, and it would take us decades to finally redeem ourselves when we finished off the final old Zeon factions, and revealed the contents of Laplace's Box."

"Laplace's Box?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The original U.C Charter - signed by the United Nations before Laplace was destroyed." Jaden said, "The original U.C Charter included an additional Clause - Clause 9 - which said the Sides were by law allowed to seek independence from the earth, and also promoted the possible existence of Newtypes. It proved that the Federation has no right to control the Sides with such impunity. As you could imagine, this caused a lot of chaos… but the New Republic of Zeon worked with the Federation, and managed to settle things down."

"Afterwards… we left." Jaden said shrugging, "We believed it was best for Zeon to leave the earth sphere, and our solar system. All colonies that wanted independence left with us. The Federation maintained control of Earth and the Sides that wished to remain part of them, while Zeon and the colonies seeking independence got what they wanted, and would no longer be influenced by the Feddies. Win-win. Though it just makes me more curious as to what the earth sphere had become since we left… "

"Maybe they used nanotechnology and fraked themselves over while you were gone." The turret they were below turned towards a test target before firing two green energy beams from both barrels, vaporizing a large slab of meter-thick plate steel set up as their target. "Direct hit. I'd say the modifications worked. Remind me next time that if I ever get on drugs, that I finish what I'm working on before I begin to detox. I designed these cannons while I was on a drug binge, and I have no idea WHAT it was."

Jaden chuckled a bit "Well, next time you forget while in the middle of something - let me know." He said, "I'll see if I can finish where ya stated. Anyways, I heard a bunch of Colonial Raptors just arrived in the system a few minutes ago."

"Caprica rescue team, I think." Ron said. "Not my department to care, really. The Colonies won't be able to support human life for a while thanks to that nuclear crap. We're better off colonizing a new world, one that's a hell of a lot better then that shit hole down there."

"...you DO realize that 'shit hole' down there has been Zeon's home for the last thousand years, right?" Jaden asked, "And we've been doing just fine."

"It's colder than shit down there, from what I've been told." Ron said shrugging. "But I'm more of a ship person: born and raised on ships."

"Born and raised?"

"It's a long story."

* * *

 **Later - _Galactica_**

 **Port Flight Pod**

* * *

Once the Raptors arrived in the system, they immediately headed towards _Galactica,_ where after they landed the rescued people of Caprica disembarked with the Colonial pilots and marines, more than happy that they were with the protection of not just a colonial battlestar - but an entire colonial fleet from what they saw outside. Starbuck grinned as she stepped out of her Raptor "Am I good or what?" She asked.

"There's gonna be no living with her now." He muttered, as Adama walked toward the Raptor.

"It's good to see you." He said, "Welcome back."

Starbuck smirked. "Thank you, sir." She said, "I brought some friends with me… though it looks like you've made a few friends yourself."

"We did." Adama said nodding. "New Colonial warships, and people from Earth, it seems."

"Earth?" Starbuck asked with wide eyes, "Frak me, we're in the clear."

"No." Adama said shaking his head, "We're going to be here for a while until the Engineers' ships are fully rearmed and repaired. After that, we'll use the nav data to get to Earth, thanks to colonel Pinkerton."

" _Pinkerton_ is here too?!" Starbuck blurted out, as someone else left the Raptor. "Holy Frak..." She glanced back where the figure stepped out of the raptor, and Starbuck looked embarrassed. "Right." She said, "Right. Um... this is, um... wow, um, this is Samuel T. Anders."

"I know who he is." Adama said.

Anders Stiffened a bit "Damn good to meet you, sir." He said.

Adama observed Anders for a few moments, before he noticed the uniform he wore "Caprica Buccaneers." He said.

Anders nodded "That's right." He said. Adama smiled a bit "Hell of a player." He said, "I'm a Picon Panther fan myself."

Anders had a small smirk "We enjoyed beating them too." He said, before he and Adama shook hands "It's good to have you aboard." He said.

Starbuck smiled. "I, uh...I have news, sir. The Cylons have left the Colonies." "What?"

"It's true." The priest left the raptor, catching Tyrol's eye. "The Cylons have left for greener pastures."

Suddenly, Tyrol raised his sidearm and aimed it at Cavil's head "Security!" He shouted, as everyone looked at him in surprise, including Starbuck "What the hell?"

"Don't move!" Tyrol warned, "He's a Cylon."

Adama narrowed his eyes, as the bastard wasn't in irons. "Yes. I'm a Cylon." He said raising his hands. "Take me to your leader."

The Old Man was NOT amused. "Take him to the brig." He ordered, before His gaze turned to Athena. "Take that to the brig, too!"

Helo turned to the Admiral, seemingly pleading. "Admiral, she didn't know-"

"Don't! Even start! She knew!"

* * *

"You can do whatever you want to me. I don't care." The Colonials (and the few Zeon officials that desided to show up) were not amused by Cavil's proclamation as another one was dragged in. "I'm not a fraking Cylon, I'm not-" His protests stopped as his eyes locked onto his 'brother' as he just slumped. "Oh. Ok, then." the Marines almost literally threw him into the adjoining cell, locking the door.

"Sorry to bust up your day, brother." Caprica Cavil said, "But there's been a change of plans. It's been decided that the occupation of the colonies was an error."

Fleet Cavil scoffed. "I could've told them that." He muttered, "Bad thinking. Faulty logic. Our first major error of judgment."

Caprica Cavil shrugged. "Live and learn." He said, "But the war heroes have managed to swing opinion over to their side."

"What heroes?" Adama asked.

Caprica Cavil saw no harm in answering. "A Six and an Eight." He said, "The Eight you knew as Sharon Valerii."

Adama remembered her all too well, as flashbacks to the day that Cylon bitch shot her played through his mind. "Their voices carry a lot of weight." Caprica Cavil said. "So when they started talking about our mistakes and our corruption and our need for a new beginning, the rest of us listened."

Fleet Cavil continued for his brother. "You see, we're not like you." He said, "We can admit our mistakes and we're not afraid of change."

"So you nuke them to death, chase them across the stars, then, suddenly just give up?" Roslin said scoffing.

"Our pursuit of this fleet of yours was another error." Fleet Cavil said raising two fingers. "That's two for anyone who's keeping score. Both errors led to the same result. We became what we beheld. We became you."

Caprica Cavil agreed. "Amen." He said, "People should be true to who and what they are. We're machines. We should be true to that. Be the best machines the universe has ever seen. But we got it into our heads that we were the children of humanity. So instead of perusing our own destiny of trying to find our own path to enlightenment, we hijacked yours."

The Zeons were less then amused. The Cylons might've been preaching that they were willing to change, but that clearly didn't apply to these ones.

"Cylon and man will now go their separate ways, no harm done." Caprica Cavil said.

Adama narrowed his eyes. "No harm?!" He said his voice raising, "You completely annihilated our race and destroyed our civilization!"

Fleet Cavil got angry while Caprica Cavil just sat there. "Now if you going to start pointing fingers-"

"I think they have every right to point fingers," A new voice said, as the others looked as Jaden Aznable stepped into the room. "The Cylons annihilated their civilization, murdered billions of people… when you had no reason too. You had an _entire universe_ to find a new home for your people… but you tossed that away for some petty revenge and illusions of grandeur… the Zabi's once thought like that, and they nearly lead my people to destruction."

"And just who the hell are you?" Fleet Cavil demanded.

"Jaden Aznable, of the New Zeon Republic Defense Force." Jaden said, "We've turned the planet we're now orbiting into our world after we left our original homeworld nearly one and a half thousand years ago… a planet the colonials call the thirteenth tribe, earth."

"...What?!" Both Cavil's shouted in surprise.

"It's true, kids." An unwelcome face (to the Cylons) entered the brig.

"Pinkerton." Fleet Cavil growled. "I thought we killed you during the Fall."

"What can I say?" Ron asked with a shrug. "It's difficult to kill me. It doesn't help that I was in charge of refitting the Thanatos, which is a fraking BSD." he looked at Adama. "Sir, the _Thanatos_ and _Athena_ will be ready to begin scouting operations in 16 hours. My engineering crews are already outfitting the volunteer Zeon ships with FTL drives."

"You work fast." Roslin said.

"In the CCE, you either get it done fast and right, or you're out."

Jaden took a seat as he looked at the two Cavils. "So… your some of those Humanoid Cylons I keep hearing about..." he mused out loud, " _Very_ fascinating… AI's with human bodies. Even after over a thousand years, we haven't advanced our own A.I research _this_ much… Hikari is going to be _very_ interested in meeting you."

"I'll send them down personally." Ron said. Roslin wasn't pleased about that. She was nicknamed 'Airlock Roslin' for a reason. "I'd say enjoy the ride, Cavils, but I don't think you will."

Ron nodded to the Marines, who unlocked the cells and shakled the two Cylons before dragging them out. Tigh followed Ron out, and they paused briefly in a crowded hall. "The quite the way I imagined it."

"Come on!" The Marines manhandled the Cylons down the hall, followed by Jaden and Ron, the latter of which had his revolver unholstered.

"So… who's Hikari?" Ron asked.

"Hikari Uzumiha is the NZR's top A.I Researcher and scientist... she's also to top professor and doctor for… well, just about anything, and she's almost as good as I am when it comes to mechanical engineering… ah, the crazy things we build together… "

"In short, she's your counterpart to me. I dabble in just about everything. Maybe I can help her." Elsewhere in the universe, something was screaming in horror. "I never have enough work, unfortunately."

Jaden chuckled "Oh, we'll see about that..." he said. "Word of warning though, anyone else in Zeon would call her… _odd._ I'm one of the few people in the system, and arguably the universe, who can comprehend her… _antics._ "

* * *

 **Later - Solomon City**

* * *

After getting the Cavils on a transport, Jaden and Ron took them to the NZR planetside city of Solomon, where they landed at the headquarters of the Zeon Engineering Corps. Arguably one of the largest building within the city, and easily the most well defended with the multiple mobile suits standing on watch, along with automated defenses, sniper teams, and anything else you could think of that could turn that tower into a fortress.

"So… this is ZEC's HQ?" Ron asked as they disembarked the Raptor with the Cavils.

"Our planetside one, yeah." Jaden said, as they walked towards the entrance. "Our primary headquarters is in space, in the Axis Asteroid. What you're seeing now is actually just 1/3rd of our planetary base - the rest is all underground, pretty much under the entire city really."

"Akin to our main base in Cyrannus." Ron said, "But that thing swallowed enough nukes to crack a planet into tiny pieces. A LOT of nukes."

"How many?"

"Around 500 multi-gigaton warheads." Ron said, shaking his head. "It wasn't pretty."

Jaden let out a low whistle as they entered the building, approaching a nearby elevator. "That IS a lot of nukes…" he said, as the elevator doors closed behind them. "Sublevel Alpha 120, authorization Aznable Omega One Two One Three, plus guests." There was a short beep, before the elevator began to move down.

The Colonel let out a sigh as they began hearing the most annoying music in the universe. "You put that shit in elevators too?" He muttered. "There's a universal standard."

"I put out a request for better material." Jaden said shrugging, "Command keeps denying it."

"Maybe you should go on strike."

"Considered it - but if we did that, the whole fleet'd fall apart, and we can't have that." Jaden said, before the elevator stopped, and the doors opened, and they stepped out as they passed multiple scientists, engineers, and armed guards.

"Ah, another day at-" Jaden began to say, before there was a loud cry of 'JADEN!' before a blur of motion glomped Jaden in the back, sending him soaring forward and down to the floor.

"Jaden! I missed you! You almost never come down here!" The 'assault' came from what looked like a woman with long waist-length blond hair and scarlet red eyes, wearing a more… revealing version of the Zeon uniform, and yet oddly enough had a strange… glow about her, and was still hugging Jaden tightly.

"L-Lilith! N-Not the time!" Jaden said, as he tried to pry the woman off of him. "Official buisness here!"

"Awww..." 'Lilith' muttered, before she finally let go. "But you really don't come down here all that much anymore..."

Jaden sighed, before he stood back up, "I've been busy, Lil." he said, "I've been with the Deep Space Fleet for the last few months, of course I couldn't come here."

"Umm, Jaden?" Ron spoke up, drawing the two's attention. "Who's your… friend?"

"Ah, right." Jaden said, scratching the back of his head. "Ron, this is Lilith. She's the A.I which helps run the the base… and technically speaking, she's also Hikari's daughter in a way."

"Like every Cylon in existence are sort of my grandchildren." Ron said nodding. "A pleasure. I'm Colonel Pinkerton, Colonial Naval Defense Force Corps of Engineers. I take it this is going to be a very interesting time I'll be having here."

"Oh, so you're one of those Colonials I keep hearing about..." Lilith said nodding, looking at Ron as she smiled. "Nice to meet ya!" She then looked a bit nervous, "And ahh… I hope me being a… well, an A.I doesn't… well, make you hate me, and all… I've read your people's history and… well… I kinda understand if you do... "

"Young lady, I created the last model of Cylon made by the Colonial people. I understand AIs better then you think." The Colonel let out a breath. "I presume your...mother is busy?"

"Oh, she's in the middle of one of her experiments." Lilith said, "She's working on those Jump Drives the Colonials gave us, and figuring out how they tic. She's also working on ways to prevent ships from jumping in or out of certain areas… kinda like a Jump Inhibitor I guess you could call it. In case the Cylons find the New Munzo system, we can prevent them from jumping in behind our lines or in our flanks like they tried in our last engagement. But I'm pretty sure if you see her now, she'll have some time to spare..." her attention then shifted towards the two Cavils. "Whoa… are those the Human Cylons I heard about?"

Her body seemed to levitate in mid-air, as she hovered around the two Cavils, inspecting them "Wow, real organic bodies!" she said, "I'd almost mistake you for real humans... how exactly do you make your bodies like that? What's the process for it?"

Neither Cylon answered. They clearly felt insulted, first by getting dragged down there, then being assaulted by a very immature AI. "If you're a good little girl, maybe you'll get one!" Fleet Cavil snapped.

Ron batted Fleet Cavil upside the head. "I didn't teach the 0005s to be that rude." He scolded.

"Frak you, Pinkerton!"

Caprica Cavil shrugged. "I don't exactly know how Resurrection works." He said, "Only our creators do."

"Oh! You're much nicer." Lilith said, before pausing she smacked Fleet Cavil in the face, giving him a bloody nose. "Who were your creators, Mr…?"

"Our model is One." Caprica Cavil said, "We're usually just called Cavil, though. We come off an assembly line, so we don't exactly bother with individual names."

"You'd like to think you do, but organic material doesn't work that way."

"As for our creators, I can't tell you."

"Awww…." Lilith said pouting, "No fair… _Please_ tell me!"

"Lil, cut it out." Jaden said, shaking his head, but chuckling slghtly. "We need to see Hikari. Which lab is she using?"

Lilith sighed "Alright, alright - she's at Lab nine, follow me." Lilith began to levitate again before she moved through the halls, with the others in tow.

"Other then the lack of FTL drives and the beam weapons, you're at the same technological level we were 70 years ago." Ron mused outloud.

"What, you had this, too?" Jaden asked. "Why throw it away?"

"When your enemy can hack into any wireless communication network and access anything hooked into it, you have to look back for protection." Ron said. "I think I designed the 0005s TOO well."

"Obviously," Jaden said, "They overpowered _all_ of your Cyber Defenses from the way you put it. "

"The Cylons were designed to adapt." Ron said, "To evolve, to use the only right word for it." Ron stopped for a second before lifting his leg up to rub his foot. "Oh, great. And I was hoping to avoid that."

Jaden rose his eyebrow "Avoid what?" He asked, "Something wrong with your foot?"

Ron removed his boot, then removed the sock covering the foot, showing off a large blister on top of his toe, near the second knuckle. "I do a lot of walking throughout every ship." Ron said. "And My boots are often ill-fitting."

"The common military joke: too big or too small, never in the size you need." Jaden said, shaking his head.

"A joke I've been the butt of for the past 50 years." He said, "I've lost count of the blisters I've had over the years."

"Let me know your foot size, and I'll see if I can get you some boots that fit." Jaden said, before they approached a set of doors. "Well, here we are - Hikari's lab… be prepared for… well, anything."

Ron simply nodded, before the door slid open… and in the center of the room was a miniaturized black hole "HOLY MOTHER OF-"

"Relax, its not a black hole." A voice said, as the others turned to see a woman sitting behind a set of consoles, wearing a white lab coat, and looking very similar to Lilith. The only difference being she looked a few years older, and possessed dark green eyes instead of red. "Its more of a wormhole than anything… the Colonial's FTL is impressive, but even it has its limits it seems… but the basic design has allowed me to complete work on _this_ little project... establishing a more… _permanent_ fold in space, rather than a temporary one for a single jump… hopefully allowing for more longer distance FTL travel for ships which lack independent FTL drives."

"Don't do that again!" Ron shouted, "Gods, now I know how everyone ELSE feels when I'm fine tuning an FTL drive and everything goes screwy."

"Hikari, this is Colonel Pinkerton; ron, this is Hikari Uzumiha."

"A pleasure." Hikari said nodding her head with a smirk "So… you're the infamous CCE Engineer I've been hearing so much about."

"Oh, shut the frak up, you fraking humans." Fleet Cavil growled. "You're almost as bad as that child of an AI."

A dark aura seemed to surround Hikari as her eyebrow twitched. "Colonel…" She said as she stood up, "Would you like to help me perform surgery on an idiot? I've run low on anaesthetics… but we can make due."

Ron grinned, "I'd love to." he said.

Fleet Cavil paled before attempting to run. He wouldn't get far, as before he could even reach the door, Lilith appeared before him, and proceeded to kick him… below the belt. HARD.

"Thank you, Lily." Hikari said as she grabbed Fleet Cavil by the collar of his uniform, "Please follow me Colonel… we have _much_ do do, afterall… "

"HELP."

"Sorry, mercy's not on my list of things that I have at the moment."

The Cylon left marks in the floor thanks to his fingernails as he tried to get away. "NOOOO!"

"Please tell me someone's recording this." Ron said. "The President's going to LOVE it."

"Got it!" Lilith said, following them as she seemed to pull a video camera from seemingly nowhere. "Got it on HD too of course!"

"This is just proving our point, you-"

"You started it when you pissed off the mother! NO ONE PISSES OFF THE MOTHER!"

Ron looked at Hikari. "Kids today. No respect." He said, causing Hikari to chuckle as they pulled Cavil into the next closest lab, sealing the door behind them. Minutes later, many would cringe at the sounds of torment coming from within.

* * *

 **117Jorn: And THERE we go! Over 15,000 words right here!**

 **Ron the True Fan: And classics from the THAB series get a...re imagining. Seems to be a thing nowadays.**

 **117Jorn: Just trying to spice things up a bit. Anyways, until next time everyone…**

 **Both: Ja Ne!**


End file.
